Clothes support means for blower type dryer



Nov. 29, 1966 G. M. GIBSON 3,237,820

CLOTHES SUPPORT MEANS FOR BLOWER TYPE DRYER Filed May 11, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1.

IN VEN TOR:

660296 M Gibson 1 BY 7 G. M. GIBSON CLOTHES SUPPORT MEANS FOR BLOWER TYPE DRYER Filed May 11, 1964 Nov 29, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 30 INYENTOR: Geo ge M GLbSOfi/ United States Patent Ofiiee 3,287,820 Patented Nov. 29, 1966 3,287,820 CLOTHES SUPPORT MEANS FOR BLOWER TYPE DRYER George M. Gibson, G. M. Gibson Corporation, Believue, Iowa Filed May 11, 1964, Ser. No. 366,340 13 Claims. (Cl. 34151) This invention relates to an apparatus for drying articles with the facility of a continuous air flow into, through and against such articles which are confined in a given space to receive such air flow.

More specifically, the invention is directed to a cabinet type Clothes dryer using a blower for the forced circulation or discharge of air into the respective garments and to the specific division and support means employed to separate and elevate the garment load in a predetermined relation to the blower location and to the air discharge coming therefrom.

Dilficulties have been encountered in obtaining efiicient and effective air flow into a clothes load and in providing a feasible means to easily arrange the garments into a grouping most receptive to the available air flow.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a means at the cabinet bottom adjacent the blower and air discharge area which will irregularly elevate and automatically support the clothes load with the bottom garments efficiently distributed and held in place to receive the full impact of the air discharged from the blower.

Another object is to provide a means to support the garments along given raised avenues in close proximity to the air discharge region above the cabinet bottom at the blower location with portions of the garments resting on the floor and upon the separation screen overlying the blower and cabinet floor. With this arrangement the air stream is able to follow the avenues formed by the raised and draped garments to permit air to spread out into the clothes group.

A still further object is to provide a spider unit combined with a screen element to support the clothing in radially draped festoons leading away from the outer blower discharge periphery and toward the blower axis for access to the entire central cabinet area under the clothes.

Another object is to provide the rack type spider unit as a means to center and hold the blower screen on the cabinet floor and to use a spider that has radial legs diverging from the blower axis toward the cabinet walls.

And a further object is to provide the legs of the spider unit with a central interrupted conical shape to establish an upwardly positioned air box region in the clothes load with the legs leading radially outwardly and downwardly toward the screen element and to the cabinet floor for attachment. This air box portion of the spider counteracts transverse shifting of the clothes load and the general shape and positioning of the spider legs permits air to move toward the central region of the cabinet as well as into the air box area for clothes contact and pentration. With this arrangement the blower air does not short circuit toward the cabinet walls over the floor and up the cabinet walls about the clothes load by which condition a great amount of drying air is lost and wasted.

Other objects and advantages of this invention shall hereinafter appear in or become apparent from the following detailed description having reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the clothes dryer of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a horizontal cross sectional view through the dryer cabinet substantially as it appears in the plane of the line 2-2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the clothes supporting spider unit of this invention;

FIG. 4 is an edge elevational view of the clothes supporting separator screen that overlies the blower and coacts with the spider unit;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged vertical cross sectional view of the lower portion of the dryer cabinet to better illustrate the details of the air penetration arrangement and as the same appears when viewed along the plane of the line 5-5 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged detailed sectional view of the spider and screen as seen on the line 66 in FIG. 5 and to illustrate diagrammatically the manner in which the garments drape over the spider legs to create air avenues over the screen and into the clothes load surrounding the cabinet and supported on the spider;

FIG. 7 is similar to FIG. 6, but here the garments are shown as assuming another position in relation to the spider legs to orient the garments in the cabinet.

The cabinet 1 shown in FIG. 1 has an elongated shape vertically in chimney form, a hinged lid 2 on top, a toe space 3 across at least one side and one or more air entry openings such as 4. Under operation, the pressure of the air in the cabinet causes the lid to raise slightly to exhaust the moisture laden blower air.

Referring to FIG. 5, the cabinet is provided with a floor 5 near its base which divides the cabinet into a clothes chamber and overlies and accommodates the working parts as will be described. Floor 5 is dished at 6 to carry a depressed floor 7 having an air inlet opening 8 centrally thereof for blower inlet air.

A subfioor 9 carries a motor 10 and motor shaft 11 extends upwardly through opening 8 to connect with an attached hub 12 of the blower 13, the latter being housed in the dished portion 6 of floor 5. The supply air for the blower 13 could be taken in through suitable wall openings between floors 5 and 9 if desired, but as shown, the supply enters wall openings 4 passing through filters 14 and enters the space between floors 5 and 9 through openings 15 to then enter opening 8 for the blower.

A screened assembly 16 is provided to seperate the blower space from the clothes compartment. This screen assembly comprises a circular upright band 17 mounted in a U-shaped base 18 of resilient material which rests upon floor 5 about the blower compartment and a screen 19 is suitably connected across the top of the band 17. This screen 19 allows free upward discharge of the blower air and provides a support for the central portion of the clothes load in the upright cabinet in cooperation with the spider rack 20.

A clothes supporting rack assembly 20 is located centrally over the floor 5 in the cabinet and overlying the screen assembly 16. This rack assembly 20 is in the shape of a spider and may be constructed of wire if desired, but as shown, is made of sturdy narrow strap material such as stainless steel consisting of two identical pieces 21 and 22 spot welded together at 23.

The two pieces illustrated provide four radiating legs 24 connected by elevated cross bars 25 having depending end walls 26 downwardly and outwardly directed to establish an air box region 27 therebetween that can be considered as an interrupted wall defined conical clothes free space when the cabinet is loaded.

Each of the narrow depending walls 26 of the spider has contiguous sloping arms 28 to support a greater an- -nul-ar portion of the clothes load and these arms each have connected sharper sloping end sections 29 that terminate with securing feet 30 that are coplanar and made to rest upon floor 5. The feet 30 are apertured at 31 to ac- 3 commodate rivets or screws 31 to attach the rack assembly to the floor 5 as shown in FIGS 2 and 5. Using screws would advantageously render the spider and screen readily removable for cleaning purposes.

It should be noted as best shown in FIG. 5, that the spider sections 29 are made to flex and to engage the upper portion of band 17 of the screen assembly 16 to center the screen over the blower and to hold the screen unit down in place upon floor 5. Thus the screen unit and surrounding cabinet floor 5 provide the means to carry the clothes load in general and the spider rack cooperates with the screen area to suspend the garments in general predetermined festoonecl ways to accept the blower discharge and to act as a means to channel and distribute the forced air into the garments of the clothesbody.

During air flow operation, the screen band also serves to deflect some of the radially directed blower air upwardly away from the floor 5 into the spider supported clothing to counteract short circuiting of blower air over the floor 5 toward the cabinet walls of the dryer.

The dryer is loaded by merely shaking and loosening the wet garments and by dropping them upon the spider rack. The separate pieces will then drape automatically themselves over the spider crown or air box 27, over the radially positioned legs 24, and portions of the garments will drape or hang into the radially open areas between the legs to rest upon the screen unit 16 and also about the cabinet over the floor 5.

FIG. 6 ShOWs a garment portion 32 draped over one leg portion 28 to festoon as at 33 and 34 to form an air channel or avenue 35 beneath the associated leg 24 of the spider. This area 35 expands radially inwardly from the screen band 17 toward the center of the rack 20 and into the air box area 27 thereof. By this arrangement, air is driven into the overhead load, but -it is also channeled radially inwardly toward the middle of the clothes load for most effective penetration and good drying effort.

When the blower 13 is operated, some of the festooned or draped garments also partially m-ove under some portions of the spider arms 28 as shown at 36 in FIG. 7 which creates a condition for holding the garments down across the bottom area of the cabinet to prevent excessive ballooning.

This described action plus the peripherally waved clothes load bottom formed or defined by the radiating rack legs will keep the garments in good position for blower air reception. The crown part of the spider defined by wall sections 26 provides a generally vertically spaced leg structure to hold the load centrally over the spider and screen to counteract load shift to one side or the other of the cabinet interior. And all of these features are further augmented by the radial air channel or clothes free avenues that permit good air penetration into the entire clothes load for eflicient and efiective drying of the garments in the load.

The foregoing description was directed to one exemplary form of clothes dryer to illustrate the concept of the present invention. Certain changes are contemplated in the individual elements or in the combinations thereof without departure from the basic idea herein disclosed.

The extent of such modifications shall, however, be governed by the breadth and scope of the language hereinafter contained in the subject matter of the appended claims directed to the clothes dryer of the present invention.

What I claim is:

1. A clothes dryer comprising a clothes chamber, perforate division means traversing said chamber, air propelling mechanism to force air through said division means into said clothes chamber, and a rack structure overlying said division means to support the clothes load to accept said forced air, said rack structure having spaced legs thereon sloping upwardly and inwardly from the peripheral portions of said division means and toward the central transverse area of said chamber to elevate portions of the clothes contained in said chamber along said legs and spaced from said division means and to festoon other portions of said clothes in the spaces between the legs and downwardly toward said division means to form open channels beneath the legs for upward air penetration into the clothes load disposed over and above said rack.

2. In a clothes dryer of the character set forth in claim 1 wherein said rack structure comprises a spider unit generally centrally positioned within the chamber and wherein the spaced clothes supporting rack legs are radially spread out from the central area of the chamber across the perforate division means and extend toward the chamber periphery.

3. In the clothes dryer set forth and defined in claim 1, wherein said upwardly sloping legs each terminate with upwardly directed walls forming a raised open air box area elevated above the sloping legs for receiving and dispersing air from the channels into the clothes load from said open air box area.

4. In the clothes dryer set forth and defined in claim 2, wherein said spider unit has a central raised crown portion formed contiguous with the. radial legs to outline an open air pocket area for central air penetration upwardly into the clothes load in the chamber and laterally about said raised crown portion of the spider unit.

5. In a clothes dryer, in combination, a cabinet for the clothes load, a transverse bottom wall to support portions of the clothes load, a blower adjacent said bottom Wall to direct a forcedair stream into said cabinet, a screen assembly supported on said bottom wall and overlying said blower to also support portions of the clothes load, and a spider rack in said cabinet carried adjacent said bottom wall and extending across the cabinet in spaced relation above said screen assembly, said spider rack comprising crossed legs joined centrally of the cabinet and extending toward the cabinet side walls forming spaced areas between adjacent legs to expose sections of said screen assembly to thereby support portions of the clothes in spaced relation to the screened assembly and to allow festooned portions of the clothes to rest upon said screen assembly.

6. In the combination of claim 5, wherein said screen assembly is loosely supported upon the bottom wall of said cabinet, and said spider rack legs are secured to the bottom wall with the portions of the legs thereof being disposed in contact with said screen assembly to retain the latter in operative position with respect to the blower.

7. In the combination of claim 5, wherein said spider rack comprises radially arranged legs reaching from the central area of the cabinet toward the side walls of the cabinet to provide radial clothes load supporting means and segmental openings therebetween to permit the adjacent portions of the clothes load in the cabinet space to festoon toward said screen assembly.

8. In the combination of claim 7 wherein said individual radial legs of said spider rack slope upwardly and inwardly from the cabinet sides and over the screen assembly toward the midportion of the cabinet to cause the draped clothes to establish radial air channels under the clothes load for clothes penetration by said air stream along said channels and into the central area of said clothes load.

9. In the combination set forth in claim 5 wherein said centrally joined crossed legs are provided with a vertically formed crown portion on said rack to establish an open air supply pocket for air penetration into the midportion of the clothes surrounding and above said rack load.

10. In the combination of claim 9 wherein said individual legs slope downwardly and outwardly from said crown portion of the rack toward the screen assembly periphery and toward the bottom wall of the cabinet whereby some of the clothes load is also supported about the cabinet on the bottom wall and around the spider rack and screen assembly.

11. In the combination of claim 5 wherein said bottom wall of the cabinet is dished centrally to accommodate the blower fan and to direct forced air outwardly and upwardly toward the screen assembly, and said screen assembly includes an upright peripheral band extending about the dished wall to receive some of the fan expelled air and to direct said air upwardly through the screen assembly into the clothes load.

1-2. A clothes dryer comprising a clothes chamber, perforate division means traversing said chamber, air propelling mechanism to force air through said division means into said clothes chamber, and a rack structure overlying said division means to support the clothes load to accept said forced air, said rack structure comprising an openwork frame having elements thereof disposed in upwardly spaced relation with respect to said perforate division means and adjacently thereacross in the path of said discharging forced air, said rack frame elements providing means to support portions of the clothes load out of contact with said division means and to provide open spaces under said open framework elements, said air propelling mechanism providing means to expand air into the clothes load draped over said open framework and to cause portions of said clothes load to expand underneath portions of the framework elements between such elements and the division means to counteract load lift and load rotation in the clothes chamber.

13. In the combination of claim 12, wherein said open framework includes an upwardly directed crown section to project upwardly into the clothes load to hold said clothes oriented upon said open framework and against lateral shifting during forced airflow into the clothes load to thereby augment the clothes stability provided by the clothes held under the open framework elements.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,047,973 7/ 1936 Lawton et al 34--72 X 2,447,766 8/ 1948 Monick 34231 2,701,921 2/1955 Strongson 34---151 3,021,960 2/1962 Pipe 248188.7 X 3,130,439 4/1964 Bovaird 34239 X FREDERICK L. MATTESON, JR., Primary Examiner. C. R. REMKE, Assistant Examiner. 

5. IN A CLOTHES DRYER, IN COMBINATION, A CABINET FOR THE CLOTHES LOAD, A TRANSVERSE BOTTOM WALL TO SUPPORT PORTIONS OF THE CLOTHES LOAD, A BLOWER ADJACENT SAID BOTTOM WALL TO DIRECT A FORCED AIR STREAM INTO SAID CABINET, A SCREEN ASSEMBLY SUPPORTED ON SAID BOTTOM WALL AND OVERLYING SAID BLOWER TO ALSO SUPPORT PORTIONS OF THE CLOTHES LOAD, AND A SPIDER RACK IN SAID CABINET CARRIED ADJACENT SAID BOTTOM WALL AND EXTENDING ACROSS THE CABINET IN SPACED RELATION ABOVE SAID SCREEN ASSEMBLY, SAID SPIDER RACK COMPRISING CROSSED LEGS JOINED CENTRALLY OF THE CABINET AND EXTENDING TOWARD THE CABINET SIDE WALLS FORMING SPACED AREAS BETWEEN ADJACENT LEGS TO EXPOSE SECTIONS OF SAID SCREEN ASSEMBLY TO THEREBY SUPPORT PORTIONS OF THE CLOTHES IN SPACED RELATION TO THE SCREENED ASSEMBLY AND TO ALLOW FESTOONED PORTIONS OF THE CLOTHES TO REST UPON SAID SCREEN ASSEMBLY. 